Chapter 4: Apocalypse (2)
Seo Han-soo looked at Jin-woo.
As Jin-woo, who looked as young as Aina, was rubbing his sore shoulder, a sneer escaped Seo Han-soo’s lips.
“Dr. Kim, we meet again.”
“Jin-woo.”
“You seem to be associating with bad people… No, are you the worst of them all?”
Jin-woo glared at Dr. Kim Jin-han.
Dr. Kim Jin-han had the same face as when they first met.
A benevolent expression, eyes filled with passion.
He was full of the conviction to save people.
Jin-woo noticed the red scalpel Dr. Kim Jin-han was holding.
When he became a veteran in the Magic Association, he had worked in the Paranormal Management Bureau.
That was an ability.
And a considerably dangerous one at that.
“That scalpel… It’s an artifact.”
“You can even recognize that? You’re really smart. As expected, Jin-woo… I think it would be good for you to become a doctor.”
Abilities referred to supernatural phenomena that couldn’t be interpreted by magic or science.
Artifacts were abilities that took the form of objects.
The red scalpel.
Also known as the ‘Red Technique Transmitter’.
It was an artifact that revealed high-level magical techniques according to the state of the sacrifice.
It revealed the magical techniques mixed with the screams of the sacrifice.
The moment the scalpel was used, the sacrifice suffered immense pain, slowly losing body parts and dying.
It sometimes revealed magic at a level that human power couldn’t reach and even spewed out entirely new magical theories.
Since the sacrifice couldn’t scream if they died, they had to be kept alive in the most painful state possible.
Jin-woo randomly knew the things the Red Technique Transmitter revealed, but it seemed that wasn’t the case in reality. More detailed information about it was also confidential.
Jin-woo figured out how they used the red scalpel.
“You experimented directly. Until you got what you wanted.”
Dr. Kim Jin-han readily nodded at Jin-woo’s words.
“It wasn’t an easy journey. Quite a few people died for the greater cause. We were able to find it after much difficulty through various data.”
“And that was Aina?”
Dr. Kim Jin-han nodded and spoke again.
“An elf girl who appears to be a pure-blooded elf due to her strong elven blood but is actually a half-elf. On the day that girl feels happiness, piercing her eyes with this scalpel is the condition for it to reveal the technique we desire.”
“Doing such a thing… Ugh! Do you think you can be forgiven?!”
Harmu shouted.
Dr. Kim Jin-han shook his head.
“I have no intention of being forgiven. But if unified medicine is completed, many people will be able to live happily. It’s about obtaining the most powerful weapon to win the war against disease.”
“We minimized the number of victims through Hancheon Group’s artificial intelligence. We also paid generous compensation to their families and acquaintances. It was a necessary sacrifice. And that girl’s sacrifice is also a necessary one.”
Seo Han-soo answered like that as soon as Dr. Kim Jin-han finished speaking.
Jin-woo shook his head.
As expected, since Hancheon Group was involved, it was the right move to take action.
After Ilshin Group disappeared, they had their heyday and greatly contributed to accelerating the destruction. They were hypocritical, despicable, and greedy.
They were monsters with the faces of angels.
Dr. Kim Jin-han reached out his hand.
“Jin-woo, you’re smart, so you understand, right? How great of a deed this is. Please leave Aina and go. If you’re interested, I can even write you a recommendation letter for medical school. With my recommendation, you can receive a very large bonus.”
Unified medicine indeed saved many people.
Many people benefited from it, and peace was found for a while.
Jin-woo looked at Aina, who was in Harmu’s arms. She was still holding the bracelet in her hand.
Leaving the bracelet behind was Dr. Kim Jin-han’s cruel consideration.
At least with hope, she could endure the long suffering.
Jin-woo knew abilities well.
“There are no kind abilities.”
“Hmm?”
“Pathetic. You just tried to make up for your lack of ability through an ability. That’s the only way for an incompetent person to pretend to be a genius.”
If it were in the realm of magic, not an ability, it could be discovered by human hands someday.
It could be reached.
Jin-woo, as an Archmage, knew it best.
“Don’t act like you’ve accomplished everything when you don’t even have the ability to match the answer sheet.”
Abilities are not kind.
The artifact ‘Red Technique Transmitter’ had limitations.
When a sacrifice was offered, it clearly spat out high-level techniques, but those techniques had the core content tangled or very cleverly missing.
The effect was halved, and since it couldn’t be further developed, it signified the end of that field.
The unified medicine established by Dr. Kim Jin-han was also incomplete.
Important pieces were missing, so it couldn’t develop further.
Since Dr. Kim Jin-han’s unified medicine had spread and taken root completely, it couldn’t be taken back either.
It was a curse and signified the end of unified medicine that should have shone completely and developed.
Jin-woo just hoped that it was Dr. Kim Jin-han’s lack of ability. He had hoped that his involvement with Hancheon Group was just a coincidence.
However, the moment he saw that red scalpel, he could clearly understand everything.
He was not the pioneer of unified medicine but its terminator.
Perhaps Jin-woo’s words struck a nerve with him?
Dr. Kim Jin-han’s eyebrows twitched.
Seo Han-soo shook his head.
“You’ll end here anyway. Even if you manage to take that sacrifice and get out safely, do you think you can escape Hancheon Group’s sight? It’s just a matter of time.”
“Interesting.”
Jin-woo smiled at Seo Han-soo.
“The agents you sent to Harmu’s house had quite some skill. There was a guy with half his head missing…”
“…What?”
“He must have been a cherished subordinate. Hmm, judging from your reaction, a friend? Brother? Ah! Sorry, he was your brother. No wonder your faces looked alike.”
As Seo Han-soo flinched, Jin-woo’s smile deepened.
“He must be whining and crying right now. His body is burning, you see. He probably doesn’t have much time left to see his face. This is what you call a real matter of time.”
“You little…”
Seo Han-soo pressed the call button, and security personnel rushed in from upstairs.
Jin-woo turned his head and looked at Harmu.
“Harmu! You can protect Aina, right?”
“Yes, young master. Once is enough for an experience like earlier.”
“There’s no need to hold back anymore.”
“Is the plan still Plan D?”
“You know it well.”
Blue sparks flew from Jin-woo’s body.
Mana raged wildly. Harmu wasn’t the only one suppressing and enduring anger.
Now it was time for payback.
The atmosphere grew even more hostile.
Seo Han-soo made Dr. Kim Jin-han step back and looked at Jin-woo.
He had expected many obstacles for the great work for humanity. However, he didn’t like that the arrogant brat, who came out of nowhere, was the obstacle.
“Your family won’t even be able to cry in front of your corpse. They’ll either be bribed or succumb to pressure. Well, that would be the right attitude for the greater good and justice.”
It seemed that when Dr. Kim Jin-han treated patients without money for free and distributed rations to the homeless, it was also to select sacrifices.
Sometimes, when the sacrifices had family or close relatives, Seo Han-soo had been dealing with them in that way.
He was talking as if there was no problem with killing Harmu and Jin-woo here.
Jin-woo chuckled.
Seo Han-soo drew up his mana. As his body became activated, the aura of a martial artist emanated from him.
A martial artist who could freely use the characteristics of martial arts and handle mana was troublesome.
Seo Han-soo’s figure blurred as he quickly charged towards Jin-woo. Once the distance was narrowed, a mage couldn’t do anything.
Seo Han-soo, who had experience facing mages, understood that point well.
However, he was no match for Jin-woo.
Jin-woo had much richer practical experience that couldn’t be compared to the likes of Seo Han-soo.
It was when Seo Han-soo reached right in front of Jin-woo and was about to swing his fist.
Thud!
Seo Han-soo’s body stopped. To be precise, his feet were stuck to the floor and wouldn’t come off.
Seo Han-soo lowered his head and looked at the floor.
A magic circle was drawn on the floor, and the floor had melted like a sticky liquid.
His ankles were submerged in that liquid.
‘Magic? When the hell did he…’
Seo Han-soo’s thought didn’t last long.
In the moment his body hesitated, Jin-woo’s hand had already reached right in front of him.
An ignition magic circle floated up.
A 9th-grade magic couldn’t deal a fatal blow to a martial artist who had drawn up a lot of mana.
With Jin-woo’s current mana capacity, it was difficult to use magic with great power.
However, there was always a way.
‘Authority of Time.’
With the current Authority of Time, it was possible to restore objects to their original state.
What if that was applied to magic?
Whoosh!
Flames shot up.
It looked like an ordinary 9th-grade ignition magic.
“Ugh!”
Seo Han-soo endured it.
His skin was burned, and his hair was scorched, but he endured it. The skin of a martial artist who had reached the level of using mana was tougher than that of an ordinary person.
“I’ll kill you!”
He felt the mana embedded in the magic circle disappearing.
The trap magic spread on the floor was also fading away. And that damn brat was right in front of him.
Jin-woo threw a punch towards Seo Han-soo’s face.
It wasn’t a very fast punch.
Seo Han-soo tried to dodge it while enduring the pain. After dodging, he planned to smash that bastard’s head right away.
However,
Whoosh!
“What?!”
The flames that should have disappeared shot up again. He couldn’t move his feet again.
Bam!
Jin-woo’s fist drove into Seo Han-soo’s chin.
His jaw twisted, and all his teeth flew out. With his ankles fixed, his body tilted backward.
“Ugh…”
Seo Han-soo flailed to grab Jin-woo.
Seo Han-soo moved even in that state.
As expected of an agent raised by Hancheon Group.
Jin-woo retreated to a point where Seo Han-soo’s hand barely couldn’t reach and used the most basic 9th-grade magic, ‘Air Impact’, to strike Seo Han-soo’s body.
It was a magic that compressed air to deliver an impact. It had the power to shatter a brick or so, so it wasn’t a big deal for a martial artist, but if it was repeated dozens of times, the story would be different.
“Ugh, ugh! C-cowardly… cowardly bastard…!”
Seo Han-soo shouted like that while flailing like a festival balloon.
In a mage’s fight, cowardice was just a means. That was also a difference from orthodox martial arts.
Only after being hit dozens of times did Seo Han-soo’s body slump down.
‘I’m getting a bit tired.’
Seo Han-soo was an intermediate-level martial artist.
If they had fought head-on, he might have had a hard time.
Jin-woo looked towards Harmu. While protecting Aina, she was knocking down the security personnel one by one.
Plan D.
It was working better than expected.
“Jin-woo, are you going to become the worst villain in human history?”
Dr. Kim Jin-han looked at Jin-woo while holding the red scalpel.
“Do you know how many people die from malaria? More than 300 million people are infected every year, and over 1 million die. The probability of children under 5 dying is 67%. If unified medicine is established, they will be immediately freed from that suffering, and if it develops further, we may be able to eliminate diseases altogether. It is the pinnacle of all medicine with limitless potential!”
Although the effect would be slightly inferior to injections, those things could be solved with a simple magic circle containing the techniques of unified medicine.
Dr. Kim Jin-han’s face contorted.
He was shouting as if asking why he couldn’t understand.
He shouted like that as if appealing to a bad villain.
The benevolent expression disappeared, and the lips that had drawn a kind smile were twisted fiercely. The calm eyes widened and were stained with madness.
“It’s for saving people! It’s for everyone! So… give me Aina, give me Aina!”
At Dr. Kim Jin-han’s words, Aina, who was behind Harmu, trembled.
Jin-woo ran towards Dr. Kim Jin-han and drove his fist into his face.
Bam!
Dr. Kim Jin-han’s body fell backward along with the operating table.
Dr. Kim Jin-han’s nose bled profusely. Several teeth were also broken, and blood flowed from his mouth.
Jin-woo picked up the red scalpel that Dr. Kim Jin-han had dropped.
The smell of thick blood wafted out.
“Young master! I’ve cleared the way.”
As Seo Han-soo collapsed, the security personnel around him hesitated.
Harmu took advantage of that moment to temporarily paralyze their bodies.
Without the red scalpel, Dr. Kim Jin-han was just an ordinary talented person.
Dr. Kim Jin-han staggered to his feet.
Drip drip!
He was hanging his head, and blood dripped onto the floor. Dr. Kim Jin-han didn’t even think about stopping the bleeding.
Jin-woo drove his fist into Dr. Kim Jin-han’s chest. It was the technique he had used to deal with the martial artist at Harmu’s house.
Flames ignited inside Dr. Kim Jin-han’s body. Smoke came out of Dr. Kim Jin-han’s nose and mouth, but he didn’t scream. He staggered to his feet again and glared at Jin-woo with tears of blood.
“I… I…”
It was a gaze that seemed to belong in the destroyed world.
Jin-woo retreated and moved towards Harmu.
“You demon-like bastards… The many people who could be saved… You’re killing them…”
A magic circle appeared around Dr. Kim Jin-han.
It wasn’t an ordinary magic circle but a bizarre one made of black color.
“…I won’t let you get away with it!!”
The moment Jin-woo’s eyes widened, a bundle of writhing tentacles burst out from the black magic circle.
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